Antique Salvaged Door Entry Storage Solution

I am obsessed with salvaged doors. Salvaged anything, really. If you’re anything like me, your entry way can get to be a mess. I have no before pictures, but I will describe it for you… A gorgeous salvaged piece of barn wood flooring, mounted on the wall with an iron key holder to hold our keys. A pair of salvaged antique, peeling-paint, rickety and so gorgeous corbels from a porch were used as brackets to hold a cabinet door posing as a shelf. On the floor, was a boot tray for everyone’s shoes. Sounds moderately cute and functional, right? Well, you’re wrong. This entry was originally a disaster area, and who would’ve thought that an adorable salvaged door would be such a life saver!?

This is the story of how I fixed that, and made this:

Before, the entry was cute in theory, but really looked like this: the key holder was the only moderately functioning area. It held things alright. Andrew would come home and put his hats, sunglasses, and badge on it, and take up all the hooks for keys. When there were keys there, his hats would just hide them. The shelf was a piece of junk because it didn’t fit the corbels, and the corbels themselves were glued back together because they were so elderly they broke while hanging them on the wall, causing it to wobble if you bumped into it. Which we did ALL THE TIME. The boot tray became a mud trap with 57 pairs of shoes in it (there are only 4 people in this house). By the end of the week, it looked like a mountain of shoes in a tray. There was no nice place handy to put my purse or diaper bag, or guests to leave their stuff by the door, so we aimed for the floor. Worked nicely. A mountain of crap!

I asked Andrew, “on your way to Lowes, can you swing by Creekside and see if they have a door outside in the parking lot? It has to fit in the entryway on the wall where they keys are.” He knew this really translated to “go buy a crappy door so you can enlist me to help you deal with this storage problem in the foyer, while I’m in the middle of a giant man-shelf in the garage.”

Bingo.

He came home with this little pretty thing, and said it was the only door that would fit where we needed it to, and it was literally love at first sight.

Funky, chippy paint, and left in the weather for a decade in their parking lot. I used a wire brush to scrape off all the chipping paint, leaving it well worn and gorgeous.

He took off the doorknob in the back and epoxied the doorknob back to the door on the outside.

I purposely hung the door upside down, making the keyhole on top of the doorknob, so that the knob and plate were above the shelf. I didn’t want to hide it too low, and I wanted to make it kid-unfriendly.

Once it set, we mounted the door to the wall using an Ook Hangman System (the one we used was rated for 60lbs, but there are others or you can double-up) from the big box home improvement stores.

Then, we put the key holder back in the center of the door… and it’s only holding keys.

Andrew made a new shelf by attaching 2 pieces of scrap pine we had lying around in the garage. We decided to de-stress the wood to make it look like it was dragged behind a truck for miles down a dirt road, for that vintage look. We then stained it using Cabot Oil-Modified Stain in Espresso. We used this same stain on our farm table in the kitchen, which is another post for another day, and it’s fabulous.

We mounted the shelf on the salvaged door with antique-feel brackets by Rubbermaid, which we nabbed for $7 each at Lowes. I wanted them to be sturdy and airy, so we just used actual brackets instead of going the new-made-to-look-old corbel route.

To help solve the problem of bags on the floor, sunglasses and hats covering the keys, we did 3 robe hooks, which were $.88 each. They’re the perfect size, and offer tons of area to hang whatever.

Then, there’s still the boot tray, however, I put pretty pebbles I got on sale at ACMoore (which you can also get at Jo-Ann, Hobby Lobby, Michaels, or whatever craft store is near you). I believe these were on sale for $3, and I used 4 bags. I still need to add another bag of rocks just to make it fuller looking, but essentially, this helps hide all the dirt. When it’s really funky, I hose it off, let it dry, put the rocks back in, and put it back.

This solution is pretty fantastic so far, and with Lilly starting school, that school bag needs a home!

The cost of this project was about $80:
Door – $40
French Cleat – $8
Brackets – $14
Rocks – $15 (this includes the extra bag I have yet to buy)
Robe Hooks – $3 ($.88 each)
And $0 for the incidentals: screws, scrap pine, and the epoxy we already had on hand.

After living with this solution for a few weeks, I have to say, it looks about the same, except there are an extra pair of Lilly’s shoes on there, and a diaper bag hanging up with the other stuff – super neat and clean! And ONLY keys on top. I still want to add a pretty little basket or something to hold some spare change, mail, or our pool passes for the summer, or some random stuff that always congregates by the door.

So beautiful! I especially like the door – what a find! Your husband did well. The stain on that board is gorgeous – can't wait to see the table! Thanks for this inspiration, I just might copy it, if you don't mind 😀